Steve Bannon became just the latest former Trump official to be indicted on Thursday when federal prosecutors charged him with defrauding donors to the viral “We Build the Wall” campaign on GoFundMe.
If you’re curious about the fundraiser — which the sweeping indictment alleges funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group’s founder Brian Kolfage — well, the website for the nonprofit that sprung from the GoFundMe campaign is somehow still up. You can find it here: WeBuildtheWall.us. In fact, it’s still urging donations and touting an endorsement of none other than Donald Trump Jr.
“We The People are coming together to build segments of border wall on private property and the best part is, we’re going to do it for a fraction of what it costs the government,” the About Us page reads.
The site brags “donations have a direct impact,” which, according to prosectors’ allegations, included some $350,000 funneled to Kolfage and $1 million to a non-profit under Bannon’s control.
The site includes endorsements from Trump Jr. as well as his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle. The Trump Jr. quote calls the fundraiser “private enterprise at its finest” while Guilfoyle apparently called it “really impressive.”
This makes it even stranger that President Donald Trump moved quickly on Thursday to distance himself from the fundraising scheme and Bannon, who was once his chief strategist in the White House. Trump also has been publicly involved with a number of other figures in the fraudulent GoFundMe.
“I feel very badly,” Trump told reporters. “I haven’t been dealing with [Bannon] for a very long period of time.”
He added about the GoFundMe: “I don’t like that project. I thought it was being done for showboating reasons.”